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Broiled Chicken

A whole chicken roasted over bright coals, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Broiled Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the chicken and cut it down the back.

  2. Break the breastbone with a rolling pin.

  3. Wash and dry the chicken.

Cook

  1. Place it on a grill over bright coals.

  2. Cover with a sheet of tin and turn several times.

  3. Cook until browned on both sides.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then baste with butter.

  5. Serve very hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to tender meat while the skin browns.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface as it is basted over the cooking chicken.

The step that matters

Cover with a sheet of tin and turn several times. Covering traps heat and steam around the chicken while turning exposes every side evenly to the coals, so the bird cooks through without scorching on one side or staying raw at the bone.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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